Belle Révolte was an evocative and thought provoking tale of rebellion, magic, and love. The story follows two young women divided by class but are determined to change their futures. I don’t read many YA fantasies with complex magic systems and although this was sometimes slow, I found I appreciated Linsey Miller’s take on it. Drawing a connection from magic to healing was ingenious and I found her execution original. Many times we see characters with abilities that help them be stronger warriors and in here, that’s not the focus. I liked how Miller’s concept showcased the efforts people take to preserve life through healing rather than the fighting. But be warned, there are many scenes that are gory and quite vivid as well as a few deaths throughout. This is not a light and fluffy piece and it does seem to perhaps border between YA and adult fiction. This is the first book that I’ve read by Miller and I have fallen in love with her strong and effective writing so this will not be my last.
“My mother did not shackle me despite my last escape attempt. It didn’t matter—the corset, layers of satin and silk, and summer heat were chains enough. I was certain I would be the first young noble lady of Demeine to arrive at finishing school under the watchful eyes of two armed guards.”
I loved this opener! I could feel Emilie’s hatred for her noble life right from the beginning. It felt real and powerful. She is a girl that knows she can do better and doesn’t need to be stuck in her mother’s world. Relatable and very effective! From then on, I was engrossed in the plot. I wanted to know how Emilie was going to pursue the life she wanted and the stirring rebellion was the perfect, dark backdrop for her to figure it out. This set the mood and gave a very strong voice to this novel’s first main character.
“Illusions were, as far as I could tell, nothing but lies. My mother was a wonderful liar.”
I devoured Miller’s poetic and emotionally charged writing and I couldn’t wait to continue this story. The composition above reminded me of Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series, and the reason I loved that series so much was the beautiful poetic prose mixed with a dark, war torn world and we see that again in here. The contrast between the beauty of the words mixed with the darkness of the actual story creates this undeniable pull that keeps you hooked. I envy this writing style immensely and this combination is very effective.
“I ate dirt as a child.”
This was a striking, bold, and harsh statement that rivalled Emilie’s introduction which made it the perfect intro to Belle Révolte’s second main character, Annette. The drastic differences between these two only worked to increase the idea of class divide and having two characters representing each world equally made this a balanced story.
I loved many things in Belle Révolte but I didn’t like the constant flow of names from both perspectives because it was too hard to follow. Many characters had specific strengths in either the noonday arts or the midnight arts and it was slightly confusing to remember who could do what and who knew who. I think this happened because of the sheer amount of female characters on Annette’s side as well as the male characters on Emilie’s side that all seemed to have two and three titles each. It was an information overload. That being said, I also found a slight issue with the idea that’s very common with rebellion and that’s the idea of one name for all those associated. In here Miller used the name “Laurel” for the resistance but there were too many scenes where members were referred to by that same name, which made it difficult to know all the members of the group and what each of them were told and when. I couldn’t keep it all straight. I feel like this choice made Miller’s writing suffer because there’s only so much you can use to try and describe a scene when the same name is given to many, especially given a large operation.
Despite these minor setbacks, I really enjoyed Linsey Miller’s newest novel, Belle Révolte and I give it an 8 out of 10! I look forward to reading more from her and I will definitely check out her other series called Mask of Shadows.
Belle Révolte is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of February 4th 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Emilie des Marais is more at home holding scalpels than embroidery needles and is desperate to escape her noble roots to serve her country as a physician. But society dictates a noble lady cannot perform such gruesome work.
Annette Boucher, overlooked and overworked by her family, wants more from life than her humble beginnings and is desperate to be trained in magic. So when a strange noble girl offers Annette the chance of a lifetime, she accepts.
Emilie and Annette swap lives—Annette attends finishing school as a noble lady to be trained in the ways of divination, while Emilie enrolls to be a physician’s assistant, using her natural magical talent to save lives.
But when their nation instigates a frivolous war, Emilie and Annette must work together to help the rebellion end a war that is based on lies.
